THE MYSTERIOUS SCHOONER
Three or four weeks slipped by uneventfully, and Frank was commencing to
like the simple, laborious life at the ranch. He and Harry were standing
together one evening on the shingle down in the cove. It was close upon
high water and a long swell worked in, breaking noisily upon the
pebbles, while they could see the blue undulations burst into snowy
froth about the dark rocks at the entrance. The sun had just dipped; it
was wonderfully fresh and cool, and a sweet resinous smell drifted out
of the forest behind them.
Harry glanced at a canoe which lay close by. It was about fourteen feet
long and just wide enough to sit in, and had been hollowed out of a
cedar log by a Siwash Indian. The bow, which swept sharply upward, had
been rudely cut into the likeness of a bird's head. The craft was kept
there so that anybody who wished to reach the sloop could go off in her.
"I don't think it's quite high water yet, and the breeze is dropping,"
Harry was saying. "There's just enough to take us a mile or two down the
beach over the tide with the spritsail set. Then we could lower the mast
and paddle home."
"Wouldn't she sail back?" Ray asked.
"No," was the answer, "only with a fair wind. You can't beat a thing
like that to windward. There's not enough of her in the water."
Frank said that he would like to go, and after running the canoe down
they lifted the short mast into place and set the little sail. It filled
when a few strokes of the paddle had driven them out of the cove, and
they slid away, rising and falling smoothly, with the swell running
after them. Harry took hold of the rope that held the foot of the sail
fast to a peg.
"You want to keep the sheet handy in a very small craft," he instructed.
"Then if a hard puff of wind strikes her you can slack it up, or let it
go altogether, when the sail will blow out loose. There's more weight in
this breeze than I expected."
It seemed to Frank from the gurgle at the bows and the way the foam
slipped by them that they were sailing very fast, but for a while he
watched the rocky heads that dipped to the water open out one after
another and then close in again behind them. The woods that crept
between them down to the strips of shingle were rapidly growing shadowy,
and the ridges of water that followed them seemed to be getting darker,
though here and there one of them was flecked with bright wisps of
froth. At length Harry let the sheet go and brought the canoe around.
"We'll have the mast down and get back," he said.
They had no trouble in rolling up the sail and laying the mast in the
bottom of the craft, but when they dipped the paddles, Harry kneeling in
the stern and Frank toward the bow, the latter realized that their next
task would not be quite so easy. A chilly wind which seemed considerably
stronger than before they turned struck his face, the bows splashed
noisily, throwing up little spurts of spray, and now and then the narrow
craft lurched rather wildly over the top of a swell. He worked hard for
about twenty minutes, and then glancing astern was a little astonished
to see that a rock which had been opposite them was now a remarkably
small distance behind. Harry, who had evidently followed his glance,
scowled disapprovingly.
"We'll have to paddle, that's a cold fact," he declared. "The tide seems
to have turned quite a while before it ought to have, and the breeze is
getting up again. We might find slacker water right inshore."
They edged close in to the rocks, the sight of which did not add to
Frank's comfort, though the boat crept on a little faster. The swell
broke in long white swirls about their feet, and it was evident that any
attempt to land there was out of the question. Besides, even if they
managed to reach the bush, there was no trail to the ranch, and he had
no desire to struggle through the tangle of fallen branches and dense
thickets in the darkness. His knees and hands were getting sore, but he
toiled on patiently with the single-ended paddle, while the canoe
lurched more viciously and little showers of spray flew in over her bow.
It was becoming exceedingly hard work to drive the craft into the rising
head sea. The foam-girt rocks were, however, slowly crawling by, and at
length, after laboring, panting and breathless, around a somewhat larger
head, Harry suddenly stopped paddling.
"Hold on!" he exclaimed. "Just keep her from swinging, and look yonder!"
Frank, glad of a brief rest, gazed astern. It was neither light nor
dark, for a pale moon hung low in the sky, casting a faint silvery track
upon the water, which was now flecked with white froth a little off
shore. Across the sweep of radiance there moved a tall black spire of
slanting canvas, with the foam leaping up about the shadowy strip of
hull beneath.
"The schooner!" said Harry significantly. "She's beating up over the
tide and she'll probably stand close in, but I don't think they could
see us against the land."
He spoke as if he did not wish to be seen, and for no very clear reason
Frank felt glad that they lay in the shadow of a big black head. The
schooner was coming on very fast, rising, it seemed to him, bodily,
until he could make out the curl of piled-up water that flowed away
beneath her depressed side. The mass of straining sailcloth hid most of
her slanted deck, and he could see nobody on board her, but it seemed
curious that she carried no lights. Then it occurred to him that she was
heading straight for them, and he was about to dip his paddle when Harry
stopped him.
"Keep still!" he commanded. "They'll have to come round before they
reach us."
Frank could now hear the roar of water about the bow of the vessel, and
in a minute or two she swayed suddenly upright and there was a great
thrashing of canvas as, shooting forward, she came round. She was very
near them and as her boom-foresail and mainsail swung across, leaving
clear the side of the deck they had shrouded, he saw two or three
shadowy figures busy forward. They became more distinct as she drove
back into the moonlight, which fell upon the form of her helmsman. Frank
could see him clearly, and there was, he fancied, something peculiar
about the man.
The splashing top of a sea slopped into the canoe as they got way on
her, and they taxed their strength to the utmost during the next hour.
The craft bucked and jumped as they laboriously drove her over the
confused swell, which was rapidly getting higher, and there was already
a good deal of water washing about inside her. Once or twice Frank held
his breath as a threatening mass of water heaved up ahead, but in each
case she lurched across it safely, and presently they found smoother
water under another crag. He gave a sigh of relief when at length they
reached the cove and beached her upon the shingle. They turned her over
to empty before they ran her up, and then Harry sat down upon a boulder.
Frank already had discovered that he seldom talked of anything they had
done as though it were an exploit.
"I'm quite puzzled about that schooner," he said presently.
"Why?"
Harry paused and thought a moment. "Well, it's a sure thing she's the
vessel that crept past us the morning we were lying beneath the point,
and though she's been seen three or four times now there's no notice in
the papers of any arrival that seems to fit her. She has the look of
being built for the Canadian sealing trade, and most of the craft in
that business are mighty smart vessels."
"Doesn't a ship have to carry papers saying where she's from and where
she's going?"
"Oh, yes," assented Harry. "Still, she might clear from somewhere in
Canada, say for the halibut fishing--I've heard they're trying to start
it there--or something that would keep her out a month or so. Then, as
there is no end of quiet inlets in British Columbia and a good many
here, she could run up and down from one to another and go back with a
few fish, and there'd be nothing to show what she had been doing in the
meanwhile."
"You think it's something illegal?"
"If it is anything honest I don't see why she was beating up without her
lights in the strength of the tide, when she'd have slacker water over
toward the other side, only there'd be a chance of her being seen from
the Seattle boat if she ran across yonder. Now it's a general idea that
there's a good deal of dope--that's opium--smuggled into this country,
and now and then Chinamen, too. Our people won't have any more of them,
but though they have no trouble in getting into Canada, they seem to
like the States better. I guess wages are higher."
"Have you talked to your father about it?"
"I told him what we'd seen the other time and he looked kind of amused,
or as if he didn't want to be bothered about the thing; though that may
not have been it, either. Unless he tells you right out, you can never
figure on what he's thinking. Anyway, I'll say nothing more to him
unless there's some particular reason."
Harry was afterward sorry that he had arrived at this decision, and, for
that matter, so was his father, but it was the next morning before this
came about. In the meanwhile the boys went back to the ranch, and soon
afterward retired to rest in the room they now shared. Frank went to
sleep at once, and it was some time later when, awaking suddenly, he
fancied that Harry had left his bed, which was fixed against the
opposite wall. A faint light from outside crept into the room, and Frank
made out a black figure standing by the open window. Slipping softly to
the floor he moved toward it and Harry raised his hand warningly when he
joined him.
"What are you doing here?" Frank inquired.
"Well," answered Harry, "since you ask me, I don't quite know, but I
fancied I heard somebody about the ranch. Keep still and listen."
He spoke in a low and rather strained voice, and Frank, who was uneasily
impressed by it, leaned out of the window. There was a moon somewhere in
the sky, but it was obscured by clouds, and only a dim, uncertain light
filtered down. It showed the great black firs which rose, a rampart of
impenetrable darkness, beyond the rather less shadowy clearing, across
part of which the fruit trees stretched. Then ran back, in regular rows,
little clumps of deeper obscurity which presently grew blurred and faded
into one another. The wind had apparently dropped again, for it was
impressively still.
"I can't hear anything," whispered Frank.
"I'm not sure that I did," rejoined Harry. "It may be that seeing that
schooner put the thing into my head, but we'll wait a little now that
we're up."
For a couple of minutes they waited in silence. Then Harry suddenly
gripped his companion's arm.
"Look!" he whispered. "Across the clearing--yonder!"
Frank fancied that he could make out a shadowy object in the open space
between the fruit trees and the forest. It was very dim and indistinct,
and he realized that he would not have noticed it only that it moved.
Shortly afterward it disappeared and a faint rattle like that made by
two pieces of wood jarring together came out of the deep gloom beneath
the firs.
"The fence," suggested Harry. "It sounded like the top rails going
down."
The fence was made of split rails interlocked together in the usual
manner without the use of nails, and it seemed to Frank very probable
that anybody climbing over it in the darkness would be apt to knock one
or two of them down. The question was who would be likely to climb over
it, since there was no one living within some miles of the ranch. Then
he caught another sound which seemed farther off. It suggested the
crackle of rotten branches or torn-down undergrowth, but it ceased
almost immediately.
"Slip on your things," whispered Harry. "I'm going down."
In a few moments they crept softly down the stairway barefooted, and
Harry opened the outer door very cautiously. He picked up an ax outside,
and they moved silently around the house, stopping now and then to
listen. There was only a deep stillness. Nothing seemed to move; though
Frank wished that he had at least a good thick stick in his hand. He had
an uncomfortable feeling that they might come upon a man hiding in some
strip of deeper gloom as they slowly crept along the wall. When at
length they had satisfied themselves that there was nobody about, Harry
sat down.
"I can't figure out this thing," he mused. "It seems to me that whoever
those strangers were they haven't been near the house, and it's a quiet
country, anyway." He glanced down at his bare feet. "I'd go along and
look around the barn and stables only that I'd certainly stub my toes,
and it wouldn't be any use. Nobody steals horses around here. They
couldn't get rid of them if they did."
The outbuildings stood at some little distance from the house, and
Frank, who remembered that they had strewn the trail to them with broken
twigs in dragging some branches from the slashing, agreed with his
companion that it would not be wise to traverse it in the darkness with
unprotected feet.
"Couldn't you slip into the kitchen and get our boots?" he suggested.
"Not without waking dad," answered Harry. "He's in the next room, and he
sleeps lightly. I'm not anxious to bring him out if no harm's been
done."
"He'd get angry?"
"No, he'd only smile; and somehow that makes you feel quite cheap and
small. Besides"--and he hesitated--"there was another time, when I
roused them for nothing; and I don't want to do it again. You wouldn't
either, if you had stood as much about it from Jake as I've had to ever
since."
They decided to say nothing about the matter unless some reason for
doing so appeared in the morning, and creeping back through the house as
silently as possible they went to bed. They awoke a little later than
usual, and going down found Mr. Oliver standing at one side of the
kitchen table rather grave of face, with Jake, who also looked
thoughtful, opposite him. A strip of paper with some writing on it lay
between them. Mr. Oliver looked around as the boys came in.
"Did either of you hear anything suspicious last night?" he asked.
"Yes," said Harry hesitatingly. "In fact, we came down."
He briefly related why they had done so, and Jake broke in:
"Then why in the name of wonder didn't you call somebody?"
"It's a reasonable question," said Mr. Oliver.
Harry explained with some diffidence that they were afraid of being
laughed at, and Frank felt a little uncomfortable under the rancher's
steady gaze.
"Well," said the latter dryly, "I suppose your idea was natural, and
we'll let it go at that. It's perhaps scarcely worth while to point out
that most people get laughed at now and then, and there's no reason for
believing that it hurts them. I wonder if you will be surprised to hear
that my team has gone?"
They were certainly somewhat startled.
"I found this stuck up on the stable door," said Jake, pushing the strip
of paper across toward them.
The boys read the straggling writing: "_If you want your team back keep
your mouth shut._"
For a moment they looked at each other in silence, and then Mr. Oliver
turned to them.
"It's all we know in the meanwhile. Have you anything more to tell us?"
Harry diffidently mentioned the schooner, and his father drew down his
brows.
"Whether her appearance has any connection with the matter is more than
I can say, but I'll sail up to the settlement this morning. You and
Frank can go on with the drain cutting while I am away."
Just then Miss Oliver came in to get breakfast ready, and when the meal
was finished the two boys made for the clearing where they were cutting
a trench. When they reached their destination Harry sat down and pushed
back his hat.
"This thing isn't very clear to me, but I'm beginning to get the drift
of it," he announced. "It's quite likely that dad knows a good deal more
about it than I do, but until he has it all worked out he won't tell.
First of all, we'll allow that they're smugglers on that schooner. They
borrowed two of our horses and that fixes it."
"You couldn't smuggle a great deal on two horses," Frank pointed out.
"Sure," admitted Harry. "Still, they might have picked up another team
somewhere else, and you want to remember that it only pays to smuggle
things that are valuable and can be easily moved. Now one packhorse load
of dope would be worth a good many dollars, and you can't move anything
much easier than a man. He's got feet."
This was incontestable, but Frank considered the matter.
"If you turned a number of Chinamen loose in the bush wouldn't they be
recognized as strangers at any settlement they reached and have to give
an account of themselves to somebody?"
"The trouble is that, although I believe they have to carry papers of
some kind, it's mighty hard to tell one Chinaman from another and they
all work into each other's hands."
"Your idea is that the smugglers have confederates?"
"They have them, sure," said Harry. "There's some diking being done on a
salt marsh not far away, and the last time I was there it struck me
there were some hard-looking white toughs on the workings. Then there's
a small Chinese colony behind the settlement, and it's thick bush with
only a few ranches for some leagues beyond. Just the kind of country for
running dope through."
"Are the ranchers likely to stand in?"
"No, not in a general way, but it's possible that a man here and there
living by himself in the bush would say nothing if they borrowed a
horse or two. It's not nice to have a gang of toughs up against you."
"Your father doesn't seem inclined to look at it that way."
Harry laughed. "I'll allow that there's a good deal of sense in dad. It
would be clear to him that he couldn't well give them away afterward if
he did nothing this time. They'd certainly have got him; and dad's not
the man to let a gang of dope runners order him round." He paused a
moment, and added significantly: "If they try any bluffing in this case
there'll be trouble."
Frank asked no further questions and they set about the trenching.